Lancelot

Culture: European

Mother:Queen Elaine

Father: King Ban of Benoic

Children: Sir Galahad

Lancelot was a great knight of King Arthur’s Round Table. He was known for his virtue and chivalry until he fell in love with King Arthur’s wife, Queen Guinevere. Their love affair led to the ruin of Camelot, Arthur’s court.

Sir Lancelot was also called Launcelot. In France, he was Lancelot du Lac or Lancelot of the Lake. In German, he was Lanzelet, and in Italian, he was Lancilotto.

Lancelot first appeared in a French romance written in the twelfth century CE by Chrétien de Troyes. Other writers continued Lancelot’s story, notably the English author Sir Thomas Malory in Le Morte D’Arthur in the fifteenth century and also the English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson in Idylls of the King.

Lancelot was the son of King Ban of Benoic and his wife, Elaine. Lancelot was raised by the magical Lady of the Lake. Lancelot had a son, Galahad, by Elaine, daughter of King Pelles.

In the thirteenth century, in the German version of the Lancelot legend, Lanzelet’s parents were King Pant and Claris. Lancelot’s true love was King Iweret’s daughter, Iblis. Together, they had a daughter and three sons.

In Mythology

Lancelot appears in many legends, and there are many versions of his stories. A traditional legend reported that he was christened Galahad by his royal parents, King Ban of Benoic and Queen Elaine. Some versions say that Lancelot was named after Galahad, the King of Wales. After his father’s death, the baby Lancelot was taken by the magical creature known as the Lady of the Lake, who raised him in her kingdom under the lake, trained him to be a perfect knight, and named him Lancelot. Alternatively, she took him to her court where he was raised and educated along with his cousins. When he was eighteen, the Lady of the Lake took Lancelot to Camelot, King Arthur’s court, where he became one of the Knights of the Round Table. These knights were dedicated to the highest orders of chivalry, such as bravery, gallantry, and courtesy.

Sir Lancelot completed many quests and became the greatest of King Arthur’s knights. He won a castle for himself, which he named Joyous Gard. He participated in the search for the Holy Grail, the cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. At one point in the tales of Lancelot’s exploits, King Arthur’s wife, Guinevere, was kidnapped by Meleagant, and Lancelot fell in love with her after rescuing her.

Elaine of Astolat fell in love with Lancelot and died because he did not return her love. Her dead body floated down the river to Camelot, with a lily in her hand. She is sometimes called the Lily Maid of Astolat.

Lancelot rescued Elaine of Corbenic, the daughter of King Pelles. She had been cursed to stay in a tub of boiling water until the greatest knight freed her. She fell in love with Lancelot, but he did not love her in return. The king was also the Keeper of the Grail, and he was tasked with keeping the Grail hidden and safe until a virtuous knight discovered it. Pelles knew that his grandchild, the son of Lancelot and Elaine, was destined to be that knight. Pelles used magic to make his daughter look like Guinevere. Lancelot slept with Elaine, and she bore him a son, Galahad. Galahad eventually became the noblest knight in the land and the discoverer of the Grail. Lancelot was able to catch glimpses of the Grail, but he could not do more because of his years of sin.

Some versions of Lancelot’s story combine the two Elaines, Elaine of Astolat and Elaine of Corbenic, into one character. In one version, for example, Elaine of Corbenic dies as a result of her unrequited love for Lancelot.

In another story, Guinevere discovered that Lancelot had slept with Elaine of Corbenic. Guinevere’s anger drove Lancelot mad. Elaine cured his madness, however, with a drink from the Holy Grail—or sometimes with just a look. The two of them then lived together for many years.

In the traditional end to the romance of Lancelot and Guinevere, their adultery was discovered, and Lancelot fled. Guinevere was sentenced to burn at the stake, but Lancelot returned and rescued her. Arthur went to war against Lancelot, but he returned home to protect Camelot. He was fatally wounded in battle.

Lancelot returned to Britain and found that Camelot and the Round Table no longer existed. Guinevere became a nun, and Lancelot became a monk, or perhaps a hermit. The man and woman died within months of each other.

Origins and Cults

Scholars have tried to find the origin of the name Lancelot, especially in Celtic mythology. Some theories suggest that the name may have come from Welsh legends that mentioned an Irish warrior, Llenlleawg, or the Scottish king Anguselus.

Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth was one of the first to tell the story of King Arthur around 1135 CE. There was no mention of Lancelot until around 1170, when French poet Chrétien de Troyes first referred to Lancelot in a few works and then made him the rescuer of Guinevere in Le Chevalier de la Charette or The Knight of the Cart. In the 1200s, a trilogy called The Vulgate Cycle featured Lancelot in the parts called Prose Lancelot. Lancelot was the main character in Sir Thomas Malory’s fifteenth century Le Morte D’Arthur and in Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson. In 1958, T. H. White wrote The Once and Future King. It is the story of King Arthur, but White focuses on Lancelot in the second part of the book. Lancelot’s story is told in many more books, films, and plays.

An award-winning Broadway musical called Camelot was produced in 1960. Robert Goulet played Lancelot, Julie Andrews was Guinevere, and Richard Burton was King Arthur. It was made into a 1967 movie, which was nominated for five Academy Awards and six Golden Globes.

Bibliography

Abrams, M. H. Norton Anthology of English Literature: Major Authors. London: Norton, 2013. Print.

Archibald, Elizabeth, and Ad Putter. The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. Print.

Knowles, James, and Thomas Malory. King Arthur and His Knights. 1923. New York: Dover, 2014. Print.

Lacy, Norris J., and James J. Wilhelm. The Romance of Arthur: An Anthology of Medieval Texts in Translation. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Mancoff, Debra N. The Arthurian Revival: Essays on Form, Tradition, and Transformation. London: Routledge, 2015. Print.

White, T. H. The Once and Future King. 1958. London: Harper, 2013. Print.